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BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

Prototype “space hopper” ready for testing

By Will Knight

A prototype of a space launch vehicle designed to take off horizontally and glide back to Earth after placing its cargo in orbit has been cleared for its first flight test.

In August, the seven-metre long, 1200 kilogramme prototype vehicle, named Phoenix, will be dropped from a helicopter at an altitude of 2.5 kilometres, to test its automated landing system. The tests will take place at an air base in northern Sweden.

Phoenix will be dropped from a helicopter (Photo&colon; Astrium)

The European Space Agency will then decide whether to develop the prototype into a much larger vehicle that can carry satellites into orbit.

This re-usable concept craft is currently referred to as the Space-Hopper. ESA hopes it will be ready in 2015, and thinks it could reduce the cost of launching small to medium-sized satellites to 10 per cent of current prices. It costs about &dollar;120 million to send a satellite into space aboard a disposable European Ariane 5 rocket.

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Reload and relaunch

The Space-Hopper would consist of a reusable lower stage designed to launch horizontally along a set of rails.

It would ascend like an aeroplane into orbit around Earth, and then a disposable upper stage booster would propel its payload into a permanent orbit.

The launcher would take off from the ESA spaceport in French Guiana and land on one of three candidate islands on the other side of the Atlantic. The vehicle would then be shipped back to South America for re-use.

James Oberg, a US space industry observer, told New Scientist&colon; “A reusable first stage does seem like the best way to go for small to medium sized satellites. It’s a direction that many countries are going in.” But Oberg also says that much will depend on the health of the ailing satellite launch market.

The prototype vehicle has been designed and built in Germany by European aerospace company Astrium.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is also developing a reusable launch vehicle, known as Responsive Access Small Cargo Affordable Launch (RASCAL).